After passing Mudanjiang, massive Soviet aircraft tenaciously repeated their bombing and machine-gun fire. Even though we fought against it, risking our lives, we did not have enough guns first of all, and the quanity of bullets was limited as well. As our comrades fell down one after another, our willpower was affected. Our ability to resist became weaker and weaker as time passed, and made us realize how helpless we were. Everything was in vain. No matter how much anyone fought courageously, it would have been impossible to sustain such a fight against the massive size of the attack by Soviet aircraft. We were surrounded by those Japanese soldiers and horses that had been killed. It was hard to find any space for ourselves.
In the middle of such a mess, Michiro Shimada (from Neyagawa in Osaka city) courageously acted on his own in order to stop the increasing attacks made by Soviet aircraft. He stopped the Japanese soldiers from firing in order to protect their comrades, and in that way we could avoid any further attack. It was a great action. If we had continued to resist by firing at them, all of us would have been killed. I would not be present today.
around August 11, 1945